Today was moving day again. We were in no rush and so had a leisurely breakfast watching ‘Kelly & Ryan’ on TV and then sat on our balcony for a while.
We left just before 10am and hit the Sea to Skyway road. This is supposed to be one of the most beautiful roads to drive in the world. I say supposed to be as the smoke haze made any views vanish. It was like there was a fog covering everything in the distance.
After driving for about a hour we pulled off the main road into what we thought was Squamish. In fact it was just the outskirts but we didn’t realise that until afterwards. We parked at a local coffee shop which I thought was fine but although she liked the coffee, Karen was not over enamoured by the place. I took the opportunity to login to the Wifi to catch up with our boys who were both at the Cup Match at Carrow Road. I was happy to find that we were winning.
We then went back to the main road and suddenly hit Squamish proper. It was not exactly a metropolis but a huge improvement on where we had just stopped. So we stopped again. This time we popped into a couple of shops and got some lunch from Subway. This we ate outside of Starbucks meaning Karen felt obliged to have another coffee. The score in the football was now 1-1 so I was not so happy. We were sent pictures from the match from communicative Son number 1, but nothing from uncommunicative Son number 2 who was also there.
From here we drove on until we reached Shannon Falls that was on our route. These were very impressive and high. They must be magnificent in the Spring when the flow must be at its highest. We walked to the bottom of the falls and then followed the path to a higher viewing point.
Driving on further we finally hit Vancouver but what a disappointment. This is a city that both Karen & I have always wanted to visit and our first impressions are not great. The road system was awful and the traffic worse. The Sat Nav literally took us through the centre and it just was not what I was expecting. The traffic was gridlocked, but the city itself just seemed a sprawling mass. Either we haven’t seen it or there doesn’t appear to be any cultural heart to it.
Our Hotel was outside of the centre nearer the airport. Even this area just seems to have evolved with no plan. The roads were a nightmare to navigate and drive. Karen said it reminded her of the area around Anaheim. I thought it was far worse than that.
After settling into our new room for the next 4 nights and learning that Norwich had left it late but won, we decided against battling our way back into downtown instead headed to the designer outlets that we were quite close to. These were much like any other outdoor outlets apart from the fact they were right at the end of the airport runway. The planes were incredibly low and so noisy. When the BA flight came over, Karen ducked as she thought it was going to clip the buildings.
We both bought a couple of items of clothes before driving a further short distance to The Flying Beaver Grill for a hot meal. It was very acceptable. It was situated at one of the Sea Plane terminals so we had a close view of them taking off and landing.
So that was today. Tomorrow we are heading early into downtown to try and find out what Vancouver is really like. My hopes were high but are now much lower.
